![]() ![]() But City Council members didn’t have the information that this essential city service was about to undergo a radical, barely tested change that the city lacks the equipment to implement. Most astonishing, only a small sample of routes were tested prior to implementation - and not in fleet vehicles or by the route drivers.Īll these shortcomings were well-known by employees. Trucks, already overworked, break down constantly. The service and maintenance group at the city has deteriorated. ![]() The fleet of vehicles is inadequate for the demands of the new plan. The new sanitation plan never had a chance, according to employees. Some are also driving their old routes but don’t want management to know. “We are working our employees into the ground,” one longtime worker told me. It’s thanks to their tremendous effort that garbage is being collected at all. They also deserved enough regard from management to hear their input before major structural changes were implemented. Have no doubt, sanitation workers in the city of Dallas work hard in very difficult conditions. Most troubling, employees are working as many as 13 hours a day, according to the experienced employees who spoke to me. In Far North Dallas, council member Cara Mendelsohn reported that over half the calls in her district continue to be for missed collections and these numbers do not even include recycling. The problem has gotten so acute that, in north Oak Cliff, council member Chad West has used funds from his office and campaign for a private provider to haul off uncollected trash. The days aren’t any shorter either, they say. As such, the old four-day system was really five and the new five-day system is really six. Now they report that Saturday is that day. ![]() The workers I spoke to say that, in the old four-day system, Wednesday was a day for gathering missed collections, getting trucks serviced, making up for a holiday, or catching up after bad weather. I called Council for comment, and he declined. It was supposed to lead to greater efficiency and fewer work days for sanitation employees. The plan devised by Sanitation Director Jay Council is based on new routes drawn by a software program. The problem is the victory of theory over experience. ![]()
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